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Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

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Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

This guide will show you how to Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit Step by Step guide in a simple manner.

1-While automating web-application many times you will get window-based activity like- file upload, file download pop-up, window authentication for secure sites, etc. In this case, Selenium will fail and will not be able to handle desktop elements.

We can upload files in Selenium using different ways

1- Using sendKeys method

2- Using Robot class

3- Using AutoIT

4- Using WGET

Let me explain to you the easiest way which works most of the time using sendKeys

Syntax

driver.findElement(By.xpath("xpath of any element")).sendKeys("File Path");

Example

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@type='file']")).sendKeys("C:\\Downloads\\Mukesh.png");

or

driver.findElement(By.xpath("//input[@type='file']")).sendKeys("C:/Downloads/Mukesh.png");

Explanation- You do not have to click on file uploader because if you click on the file upload button, it will start file uploader which you need to handle separately.

You can find the locator of the element where the file needs to be updated and then you can pass the file path directly, files can be excel, png or any type depends on your application.

Note- In case of sendKeys method does not work then you can go ahead with all other options.

 

Introduction to AutoIT tool

1-AutoIt is a freeware automation tool that can work with desktop applications too.

2-It uses a combination of keystrokes, mouse movement and window/control manipulation in order to automate tasks in a way not possible or reliable with other languages (e.g. VBScript and SendKeys).

For more info about AutoIT, you can visit their Official Website AutoIt Official Website

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

 

YouTube video for Same 

                    
How to write a script in AutoIT?

For AutoIt scripting, you should have three things ready.

1-AutoIt Editor- Editor helps us to write AutoIt scripts.

2-Tool Finder – It will help us to identify the element and check their Attributes.

3- AutoIt Help section- This help you to understand about AutoIt functions and what are the parameter it accepts.

Let’s start with Downloading first

Step 1– Navigate to AutoIt  official website  https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/downloads/  and go to download section or Click here Download AutoIt

Step 2– Click on Download AutoIt and Install

Step 3–  Click on Download Editor and Install.
Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

 

Step 4– Once both are installed in your machine, check all are installed correctly.

Note- Generally it goes to C:\Program Files\AutoIt3 location if you do not change it

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

 

 

 Step5– Open SCiTE folder and  Click on SciTE this will open AutoIt Editor

 

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit
Once all Installed Let’s see how we can write the script.

 

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

To Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using AutoIt we need to take care of some steps so let’s begin

To upload a file in Selenium Webdriver we will create AutoIT script, which will handle file-uploaded window, and then we will combine Selenium script with AutoIt scripts.

Click on the Upload button you will get a file uploader we will handle the same using AutoIt.

 

Step 1- Open Editor and Finder Tool

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

 

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

 

 

 Step 2– We need to write script to upload file so we will use some method of AutoIt.
Each method will have some own functionality
ControlFocus-This will give focus on the window

ControlSetText-This will set the file path

ControlClick-This will click on button

 

Step 1- 

Click on Browse button , a new window will open now open finder tool and Click on Finder tool and drag to the file name as I shown in below screenshot.

 

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

This will give all the detail about that window and file name section info; we will use only some attributes like window title, class, and instance.

Open AutoIt Editor and Write Script

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit

In ControlClick method, we will give control id of open button

Step 2-

Save the script to a particular location with some unique name.

Note- By default script will be saved as .au3 extension

Step 3– Now Compile the script so for compiling right click on file and Select compile script this will generate a .exe file of the file.

 

Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit
Step 4- Now write Selenium program and add this .exe file and run your program

Here is the code

package demo;

import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;

public class DemoFileUpload {

 public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
                
// This will open Firefox browser
WebDriver driver=new FirefoxDriver();
        
// This will maximize browser to full screen
driver.manage().window().maximize();
        
// This will open respective URL
driver.get("your application url");
        
// This will click on Upload button
driver.findElement(By.xpath("//*[@type='file']")).click();
     
// This will invoke AutoIT script here give the path of the script 
//and this will throw IO exception so u can use throw or try catch
// In my case I am using throws

Runtime.getRuntime().exec("C:\\Users\\mukesh_otwani\\Desktop\\AutoItScripts\\blogUpload.exe");

// Once you will run this program AutoIt script will be invoked and respective f//ile will be attached
  
  }

}

 

Thanks for visiting my blog. Please leave a comment below if you are finding any issue while Upload File in Selenium Webdriver using Autoit.

Keep in touch. Have a nice day.

Now if you are comfortable with Basic Selenium, you can check out Advance Selenium Tutorial as well. 🙂

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. Ankur says

    Hi Mukesh,

    Thanks for Selenium Tutorial.

    Need to know, Through AutoIT while uploading the file can we change the location of the Folder.
    Scenario:
    When click on the upload file then by default desktop item is displaying but my uploading file is placed on another Location.
    So how can we switch the folder from Desktop to other Location??

    Reply

  3. Sai says

    Hi Mukesh,

    My Script
    ControlFocus(“Open”,””,”Edit1″)
    ControlSetText(“Open”,””,”Edit1″,”C:\Users\naresh\source\repo\QA.png”)
    ControlClick(“Open”,””,”Button1″)

    My test class runs but execution stops for few seconds at upload button and throws below exception in console and executes all other test cases after this test case.

    Exception occured with locator: By.xpath: //*[@type=’file’]

    But xpath is correct

    Please help.

    Reply

    • Mukesh Otwani says

      Hi Sai,

      Since I can see xpath which you have used, could please try driver.findElement(by.xpath()).sendKeys() instead of using AutoIT and let me know with your observations

      Reply

      • Sai says

        Hi Mukesh,

        Below code works for me,
        1. driver.findElement(By.xpath(“//*[@type=’file’]”)).sendKeys(“C:\Users\Desktop\QA.png”);
        2. elementActions.doSendKeysUsingBySelector(LogoUpload, “C:\Users\Desktop\QA.png”);

        Thank you.
        However, I would like to get rid of hardpath. My manager should be able to run on his machine. In that case I think I cannot use above code. Hence, I was trying to upload using AutoIT. Could you please help how to overcome such type of issue and what is the best way to avoid hardpath ? Thanks.

        Reply

        • Mukesh Otwani says

          Hi Sai,

          Better way is to keep these required files into shared folder which should be accessible to everybody or keep these files into some folder inside project folder so that whoever clones project can get these files.

          Reply

          • Sai says

            Hi Mukesh,

            I figured out. Below code works magically,

            public void getLogo(){
            String dirPath = System.getProperty(“user.dir”);
            String path = dirPath+”\\QA.png”;
            driver.findElement(By.xpath(“//*[@type=’file’]”)).sendKeys(path);
            }

            Thanks for your help.:)

          • Mukesh Otwani says

            Hi Sai,

            Yes, you are partially correct. But how will you deal with file QA.png, will this file available on other machines too. That why, I mentioned to add these files into your project folder.

  4. ranjan says

    Hi Mukesh,
    I am observing that sometime the exe file run successfully from code and sometime it doesnt, say out of 10 times 4 times it does not run and my test fails.
    Is there any way where i can handle this.

    Reply

    • Mukesh Otwani says

      Hi Ranjan,

      We can’t have control on execution of AutoIt as it doesn’t interact with Selenium anywhere. We have to adjust static time according to application behavior.

      Reply

  6. Siva says

    Hi Mukesh,
    Your tutorial is very helpful for me. Thank You!
    I am facing an issue below
    When an execute my script, it will always navigate file upload page to “Desktop” showing error as “File not found” but
    IN AUTOIT script:
    I have given attachfile path to “D:\HDimage\profile.jpeg”

    Script working fine, if attach file placed in desktop

    Reply

    • Mukesh Otwani says

      Hi Siva,

      File not found error is thrown by OS. It always happens when the provided path is either wrong or path mentioned in input box is syntactically wrong. Kindly recheck path you have provided.

      Reply

      • Siva says

        Hi Mukesh,
        Thank you for a quick response
        My script:
        ControlFocus(“Open”,””,”Edit1″)
        ControlSetText(“Open”,””,”Edit1″,”D:\HDimage\profile.jpeg”)
        ControlClick(“Open”,””,”Button1″)
        My question:
        My path: D:\HDimage\profile.jpeg but when clicking upload button, it’s open “Desktop” page.

        anything I am doing wrong? please correct me

        Reply

  7. Neeru says

    Is there something that can be used to drag and drop a file from harddrive/desktop to UI?Just like we can do drag and drop in Gmail instead of clicking on attachment icon?

    Reply

  8. Abhishek Sharma says

    How can we parameterize the exe file. I want to set a text in edit box using autoIT and this text is to given by use…Can u help ?

    Reply

  14. Manjunath says

    Runtime.getRuntime().exec(“C:\\Users\\mukesh_otwani\\Desktop\\AutoItScripts\\blogUpload.exe”);
    this is not working for me. please suggest

    Reply

  15. Aishwarya says

    How to attach file in selenium? i tried with the help of robot but it is not working .can u plz tell me different option

    Reply

    • Mukesh Otwani says

      Hi Aishwarya,

      If I am correct then attach means upload. You can upload file using autoIT. During file upload, when you click on browse button on webpage, it opens a window to select a file. And same window is coming up from OS not from webpage. That’s the reason, for file upload we need to take help of third party tool.

      Reply

  16. Deepak says

    i am unable to click on Browse button in IE11. script is runnig fine in chrome but in IE, it is not clicking on browse button.

    Reply

  17. Ritu Singh says

    Hi Mukesh,

    Your blog and all the selenium videos are really very helpful,they are very clear to understand and easy to learn.

    Thank you 🙂

    Reply

  18. Vignesh says

    Hi,

    In your example you worked with Java application. In my case I am working with C#. C# is not accepting this line -> Runtime.getRuntime().exec(” “). Can you give me an alternate solution for this…

    Reply

  19. Vignesh says

    Hi,

    I have gone through your file uploading concept in selenium. In your example you are uploading file of type .html. Can I able to upload excel sheet to the application? If so could you please explain about that..

    Reply

  21. Vikas says

    Hi Mukesh Otwani

    Thanks for sharing the code.

    I tried to edit the code for saving pdf file with “Save As” dialog box in Chrome browser with below code

    SaveAs.au3 file
    WinWaitActive(“Save As”,””,10)
    ControlFocus(“Save As”,””,”Edit1”)
    ControlSetText(“Save As”,””,”Edit1″,$CmdLine[1])
    ControlClick(“Save As”,””,”Button1″)

    Code inside Selenium
    Runtime.getRuntime().exec(“C:\\SaveAs.exe”+” “+”D:\\Medical.PDF”);

    My above code is not working as system open Save As window but does not pass file name which I provided and thus also does not click on save button.
    Can you please tell me where I am making mistake.

    Reply

  24. snehita says

    can we do data driven testing with the help of AutoIT incase of fileupload. I want to upload different files for different test cases with selenium webdriver and AutoIT. Is there any chance to do it.

    Reply

    • Mukesh Otwani says

      Hi Snehita,

      Yes, we can do this through data-driven framework but before running you should know how to pass the parameters to AutoIT Script.

      We can parameterize AutoIT script and we can change file name at run time through excel data or static data as well.

      Follow below link which will help you to parameterize script

      Please try and let me know if you are facing any issue.

      Have a nice day 🙂

      Reply

        • Mukesh Otwani says

          Hi Suresh,

          here you go

          WinWaitActive(“Open”,””,10)
          ControlFocus(“Open”,””,”Edit1″)
          ControlSetText(“File Upload”,””,”Edit1″,$CmdLine[1])
          ControlClick(“File Upload”,””,”Button1″)

          Runtime.getRuntime().exec(“C:\\path-of-exefile\\dummy.exe “+” “+”C:\\file-to-upload\\1.PNG”);

          Reply

          • sureshkaperla says

            Hi Mukesh, Thanks for the provided information on this. I tried below command

            Runtime.getRuntime().exec(“C:/AutoITScripts/pdf.exe”+” “+”Opening pricing.csv”)

            and printed the values on the message box.

            Actual Output is as follows:

            $CmdLine[1] is Opening
            $CmdLine[2] is pricing.csv

            However since it is one value, expect the value “Opening pricing.csv” to get assigned to $CmdLine[1].

            Any comments on this as to why this value is getting splitted despite it is provided within the double quotes.

            Thanks in advance
            Suresh

  27. You Could Check Here says

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    say that this write-up very forced me to take a look at and do so!
    Your writing style has been surprised me. Thanks, very great post.

    Reply

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